40k characters (specifically marines)

57 here---

A day or two ago a classmate of mine found out I played 40k and then proceeded to ask me a series of annoying questions about me playing wolves and what I thought about them and the other marine special characters.

More on that later.

Here's the Q&A of him asking me about wolves:

Q: Do you like playing wolves?
A: If I didn't I wouldn't play them.

Q: Blood Claws seem really good, since they have 4 attacks on the charge!
A: No they're not good.
Q: There not?
A: No. Because sure they get 4 attacks on the charge, but they will always be hitting on 4's or 5's, you can't re-roll those, not to mention if they're within 6-12 inches of an enemy unit they can't shoot unless there's an independent character or a pack leader with them, which is a stupid thing to do. The only way I'd use them is in a pack of 15 with a wolf priest in a land raider crusader, but then I'd be paying over 600 points for one unit, which is a fucking stupid thing to do.
Q: So, Grey Hunters are better?
A: Duh. In 40k you want units that can "Hold the hill," and Grey Hunters are fucking great at that. They're like Space Marines, but have more perks and the load-out of a Chaos Marine (which is damn good). So you're next question is going to be about Pack Leaders, which I will answer is stupid, if you have a unit of 10, you pay cheaply for a special weapon and the next one is free. The extra point to leadership isn't too bad since they have ATSKNF.

Q: Are Long Fangs good?
A: A bear shits in woods. Yes they're good. They can get 5 heavy weapons for cheap and each one can fire at a different target. Does that sound good to you, cause it sounds good to me.

Q: Do you take powerfists?
A: Yeah, because I want at least one thing in a unit to be able to take down a wraithlord in close combat.

(Wolves special characters time)
Q: I think Njal in terminator armor is pretty good, what do you think?
A: No, he's not good in terminator armor, or in general. Why? He's too expensive and doesn't do enough. With terminator armor he's 270 points, I could get a pack of Grey Hunters and unit of Wolf Scouts for that. His one thing, the changing weather shit, is not good because it's too small and doesn't do enough. Sure, he knows all the wolves psychic powers, but most of those aren't really good, and the few that are only really work against certain armies. He's not worth it. Period.

Q: What about Blackmane?
A: Too generic and too expensive for what he does. Enough said.

Q: Then what SC's do you like?
A: Cainis and Bjorn. Cainis because I run two units of thunderwolves and I want someone other than a Wolflord to lead the second, he does a good job of doing that, I've killed wraith lords with him. Bjorn because he's a fucking dreadnought, chances are in close combat enemies won't be able to hit him because they'll need 6's, and unless they have melta bombs or a power fist chances are they won't be able to hurt him either. Every time I've used him he's earned his points back. And then some.

(Blood Angels and Vanilla marines SC time)
Q: What do you think about Calgar?
A: He's alright. Expensive, but alright. The "God of War" rule is fucking stupid since it's chapter tactics, they just felt the need to make him seem better and put "God of War" in there.

Q: Ko'Sarro Khan is pretty good, I've used him, what do you think?
A: You're an idiot, but what else is new? Probably the only reason he's been good to you is the people you play against are morons, because he's an easy character to get killed, and expensive again. The only way to make him good is to put him on a bike, which is 45 points and does shit. I just need to unload with missile launchers and lascannons into his squad and he'll die.

Q: Ok, um, Blood Angels, what do you think about the sanguinor?
A: First off, his name is fucking stupid. Second off, he's too expensive and lacks the Independent Character rule, meaning he will get shot at a lot and die. If he had IC, he'd be a little more worth it, but he doesn't so he's not.

Q: Tycho?
A: Too fucking boring. I'd rather take a nameless character.

Q: Seth?
A: The one character I'd use, because he could kill a land raider and he's 160 points. I'm sorry, that's fucking good.

If I seemed rude it's because this guy was an idiot, asking me a bunch of stupid questions, getting the 40k fluff wrong (It was half the Raven Guard that turned, why do you think they're gene seed is so mutated?) and wouldn't leave me alone.

Piece of advise about talking or playing 40k, know what to do and know about what you're talking about, seriously. This really annoyed me, and chances are it'll annoy any other 40k player.

Blood Angels Second Wave

"The Storm Raven is here and it's not looking quite as ugly as we first thought."
-- Space Wolves Blog

No, sir, it's still ugly, they just added some landing gear and a couple new weapons.

Listen, I'm not going to tell my thoughts on how the Storm Raven looks, I've already been over that in an earlier post, so bashing on it again is blatantly idiotic. Look, if you like it fine, if you don't just use a Valkyrie like any sane person who doesn't want to pay sixty bucks for a hunk of plastic.

Anyway, the other two things coming in the second wave are the Blood Angels Battleforce and the Furioso Dreadnought.

The Battleforce first. Look, just buy a regular marines Battleforce and you'll get the same result, the only thing here of interest is the death company, but chances are any good Blood Angels player will have bought two boxes of them already so they don't need them. I'm surprised (or unsurprised) that GW took so long to put together a battle force that is nearly a complete copy of the Marine one. Whatever, if you want to pay $100 for a Battleforce, I won't stop you.

The Furioso Dreadnought. Ok, this is actually pretty cool. I've always liked the look of dreadnoughts, and here we have three potential variants in one box. Now, this is still the same basic layout for a dreadnought, but just the amount of extra bits and pieces offered in it really appeal to me. The three variants are the regular Furioso, the librarian dreadnought and the death company dreadnought, all have their own bit that contribute. Out of all the second wave, this is the one I would pick up.

Cheers,
57

Prospero Burns Book Review

57 here,

Now there are few things that when I finish them I just sit back in awe for a moment and just think over the very thing, about how great it was, how well it was done and so on and so forth. The first thing I remember doing that was after reading David Gemmel's Waylander and it just blew me away. Just the epic story telling, the tales of pure heroics, just all of it. That happened again to me recently. I put down Prospero Burns and I just said, "Wow, just..... Wow." Easily I can say this is one of the best books I have ever read and the best Black Library has ever published.

The story is the other half, the Space Wolves half, of Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons and everything that has happened is put from the Wolves perspective of the fall of Prospero. The story as McNeill and Abnett said was a tragedy, about two loyal legions pitted against one another in a battle crafted to be by the Primordial Annihilator, Chaos. And it all climax's in a suitable and amazingly crafted fitting and epic ending.

The story, unlike past Horus Heresy novels does not follow one direct Astartes, I use Astartes not space marine because "space Marine" just sounds bland and generic to me, and not once are the Wolves or Sons called that. But no, it doesn't follow one Astartes (I.E. Horus Rising, A Thousand Sons, The First Herectic) but follows the life of Kasper Hawser, a pseudo remembrancer/skjald that was interested in following the Wolves, is one of the few that is allowed to and slowly turns from a Terran-born man to very much like and similar to the Wolves.

The story slowly and very discreetly turns from his adventures with the Wolves to a darker spy/manipulation plot where he and the Wolves learn of the treachery during the Council of Nikaea and the sack of Prospero. It's refreshing to hear a story not based on the Superhuman Astartes, but with a character readers can relate with. With him there's much more confusion in the heat of battle, many more secrets from him, and a whole other mystery that he slowly unravels.

I will say it's a tad confusing when you start reading it, but that can be said about most books, and slowly Abnett works the reader into the story, keeping information until the last moment and unraveling the events in a way that keeps the reader involved and interested until the dust settles and the last sentence ends in a work of near mastery.

Prospero Burns is a book that will blow many people away with its grand story telling, its mystery, epic characters, and its plot that has indeed shown why Prospero is an event worthy of telling in the Horus Heresy series. Easily, this is Dan Abentt's best work and the best book ever to be printed by the Black Library.

57's score: 5/5

Read it. You won't regret it.

Zodiac Bullshit

57 here,

So, now everyone is freaking out about how the earth has wobbled and changed what their Zodiac sign is now, huh? Odd, my sign changed and I find it really hard to care.

Why? Simple, I don't really believe the Greek Zodiacs very much. I used to be an Aquarius, which means my personality should have been like so:

Poor, unhappy, unlucky, unsuccessful, medium height, rare faculties, self-esteem.

Well, I'm not poor (outside of being a college student) I'm not unhappy, I have pretty good luck, I'd like to think I'm successful, I'm 6'1'', rare faculties=bullshit, the only thing here that makes sense is the self-esteem. Well, that's crap.

Now, I'm a Capricorn, which now means I should be this:

Mean-minded, stubborn, ignorant, miserly, pushful, unhappy, boring, active, meddlesome, obliging, humorous, witty, affable, prudent, firm.

Well, I try to be nice a lot of the time, I'm slightly stubborn at not doing what I don't want to, fuck no I am not ignorant, still not unhappy (though I'm not happy either, I.E. I'm neither happy nor unhappy), I'm not pushful, I take offense to being called boring, sure I try to be active, I steer clear of other people's business (unless it affects me), I try to be convenient, Humorous and boring together here makes no fucking sense, sure I'm witty I guess, prudent or affable make no sense, and firm, not really most of the time.

Wow, sounds a lot like garbage to me.

The Greek Zodiac is based on constellations, not any earthly thing, that's why I don't trust it. The only Zodiac I trust is the Chinese. Why? I like the Greeks and all, but the Chinese Zodiac has been around for much, much longer, therefore it has a better chance and better accuracy to predict people. Sorry, I'll take the more ancient and more accurate Chinese philosophy over the younger Greek.

So, in the Chinese Zodiac I'm a monkey, meaning:

Joker, up for a good time, has a hard time showing self, can understand things and adapt well to them, and helpful.

Yeah that's really more accurate.

Look, I don't get why people are so keen to know what their future holds. To prepare for it? Hey, one of the fun things about life is to live and take whatever is thrown at you, be it good or bad. If you prepare for one apparently bad thing, and it turns out something bad happens, then you feel worse.

The Fun things in life are living and experiencing what live gives you, adapting and having fun. Knowing the future takes that away, takes away the surprise and potential it has. I generally don't worry about the future that much, aside from where I'm going to work and eat and all that, and I have fun.

If we knew everything about the future and the universe, that wouldn't be fun, we'd all just sit around and be bored, moaning about the meteors coming tomorrow or how we know this or that won't last. Taking in the unknown is fun, a new adventure every day. And that's what matters.

I know this is off topic, but hearing about the Zodiac change got me thinking about the future and how little we know. Sometimes there's a reason for us not knowing something, true knowledge, after all, is knowing we know nothing. And there's a good reason for that.

My advise, if you choose to take it, is live by the day. Sure, think about tomorrow, but don't worry about it. We adapt and change to whatever is thrown our way, and that's what makes life fun and partly why its worth living.

Just think about it, that's all I'm asking.

Chaos codex thoughts

So, I was reading through the Bell of Lost Souls forum earlier and saw that they allowed people to post on what they wanted out of a new Chaos Marine codex and this got me thinking. It's no lie to say that the Chaos codex rather blows right now, and I really liked how the old one allowed you to do Legion specific chaos legions. So I thought why not bring that back? It was fun, if lacking a bit sure, but then you could have an army that could do what you wanted to do, right? Right. So, I thought for a bit, and this is what I came up with:

Give HQ's and infantry point upgrades to outfit them more properly to their specific legion, such as space wolves (I.E. lord gets a 15pt upgrade, or so, to allow troops to benefit from legion specific rule). Such as the following:

Emperor's Children: High initiative assault/shooting units. If lord has Emperor's Children mark, sonic weapons can be bought for a cheaper price (though still available for units who bear Children's mark, but slightly more expensive).

Iron Warriors: Anti-Tank upgrades for infantry. A mere maybe couple points upgrade to them granting a tank hunter rule, or something along those lines for Melta/Lascannon weapons. For the lord he can choose to fortify one piece of terrain for better cover save (like master of the forge) showing the Warriors use of trenches.

Night Lords: Assault troops. Gain night fight and move through cover rules if infantry buy upgrade. If the lord purchases the upgrade, then raptors gain the hit and run special rule to represent their fast moving terror tactics.

World Eaters: Infantry gain Extra number of attacks and fearless. Lord allows them to also gain hate and possibly blood frenzy and maybe an Epidimius style counter system for however many kills they make. If lord takes upgrade, no sorcerers can be included.

Death Guard: Squads lose most special weapons (Flamers, Meltas, Plasmas, etc.) but gain higher toughness and increased accuracy. Lord Grants army Feel no pain. Limit one havoc choice at higher cost showing the Death Guard's lack of heavy weapons.

Thousand Sons: Gain AP 3 bolters but lose any and all special weapons, still lead by sorcerer and still slow and purposeful. Lord grants a lower price on sorcerer upgrades and gives 4+ invulnerable to all thousand son units. No units of the World Eaters can be taken.

Black Legion: Squads gain ATSKNF. Abaddon turns units fearless and grants (at cost) relentless.

Word Bears: Squads given fearless and can re-roll failed moral tests. Lords give maybe two or three sergeants the ability to re-roll EITHER failed to hit or to wound roll to their entire squad. Can take daemon allies.

Alpha Legion: Squads can infiltrate, and guard platoons can be taken at maximum 15 model squads. Lord Grants the ability to outflank, even from opponents side of table (still needs to roll to see where they enter).

I'm sure there are problems people will have with this, but it's just something I thought up. So, why don't you all comment on how you'd want the new Chaos codex to work. Seems fun.

Cheers,
57

A moral dilemma

Wow, this has bee a busy few days, hasn't it?

Well, today I come to talk about a moral dilemma: What should I do?

I'm not talking about a current no win situation regarding a significant other, or such other nonsense, no, what should I do for a living?

I want to be a lawyer, I want to take cases to court and defend my candidate, or prosecute someone else along those lines.

I, also, want to be a writer. I am currently working on a book and looking for a publisher to, well, publish it.

The problem is, in light of current findings, I can't do both. Both demand almost, if not all, of one's time, leaving none for the other, as I have hoped previously. The only reason I have found any time at all to write Siege is because I have some degree of focus and time during the week while at college to write it. But I know this will change in times to come, I know, for two simple reasons:

A). Graduate school

B). I know being a full time writer is a bad idea

What do I mean by B? Simple, all of your income now relies on things that have a very, very high chance of failure. And if your book tanks, well, you're shit out of luck. Thing is, I've never liked putting all my books in one basket, which is what (from my point of view) writing is, unless I'm amazingly popular, which, again, is seriously unlikely.

Would I like to get The Siege of Midgar published? Yeah, I would love to. Could I make a series out of it? I think so, I'm not sure, but I think so. Could I become a full fledged because of it and the pitch I'm going to make to the Black Library in May? I don't know, I just don't know.

Do I have dreams of success through writing? Of course, without dreams, ambition, we'd get nowhere in life. I would love to one year have the 2010 of Graham McNeill, who this year got both the David Gemmell fantasy award for Time of Legends: Empire, The Legend of Sigmar and got on the New York times Best seller list for A Thousand Sons. Not to mention he had a kid in 2010, so we can all agree McNeill had the Best Year Evar.

So, long story short, I don't know what I'm going to do. Both have their ups and downs, both are appealing and both have things that make me hesitant about doing them. Problem is I want to do them both, but can't.

I've considered writing to both McNeill and Abnett asking for their opinion, but I don't want to bother them because of a no-name college freshman having a life crisis.

In the end, I know it's my decision, and I know I don't have to make it now, but I know for the next few days I'm going to lose sleep over it. And coming from an insomniac, I need all the sleep I can get. Shit.

Cheers,
57

There we go

Ok, that's much better don't you think?

Alright, it's not that much different, but it looks better and includes more stuffs right? Right.

Well, now I have links to other blogs and such that I like (many of them authors I like) as well as a link to my other site that will include various short stories that I've written. Though few are going to be 40k related, but hey beggars can't be choosers, right?

If you want to read the first one I've written, click the link that says "My stories" or go here http://allthebloodismine.blogspot.com/

Hope you enjoy it, because I had fun writing it.

Cheers,
57

Happy new year..... I guess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, happy new year.

Really, I've never seen any damn point to this "Holiday," but hey I've always gotten a day off for it, so I guess that overrides my opinion of it.

But, really, celebrating a new year...... Okay?

Look, chance are it's just going to be like last year, just as bad, just as good. Oh, and that "New years resolution" you made? Chances are you're going to forget about it about two months in, and fail at it (unless you resolved to get to the next year, then power to you).

Okay, I'm being a jerk here. Holidays are holidays. Ones like these only come around once a year, and with the world being in the shitter it is today, it's never hurt to just sit back and enjoy them. So, you know what? Happy holidays. Just sit back with the people you love and relax. Really, enjoy this time, everyone needs a break now and then, and this is our break.

And in celebration, here's another excerpt from my book, which I have decided to call The Siege of Midgar.

Enjoy.
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It took Ulrick moments to break free from the paralyzing grip of shock. Before he realized it, Ulrick rushed to Njal’s torso and fell to his knees by him. He looked even worse from close up. Ulrick could see the various cuts and bruises from fighting Jorin. The three puncture wounds from where Jorin had punched his claws through Njal’s breast plate were gushing blood. A mixture of blood and bile poured from Njal’s mouth. Coughing and spluttering, Njal was clinging desperately to life. But all in vain. Ulrick knew that Njal was gone.

Slowly Njal’s eyes moved to Ulrick, and slowly he smiled.

“Ulrick….” Njal spluttered through a mouthful of blood.

“Njal,” Ulrick replied softly. “Why? Why did you peruse him? Why didn’t you stay with the rest of us? You could have left it to the more experienced soldiers”

“I thought I could….” Njal coughed. “Stop him….. Handle him….”

He was going fast.

“I’m going to….. to…. make it?” Njal asked, whispering now. “Aren’t I?”

Njal let go of his shield and lifted his right hand up to Ulrick.

Ulrick looked at the feeble gesture, and finally reached over and grasped Njal’s hand holding it up in front of them.

“Yes,” Ulrick answered softly. “It’s going to be alright.”

“I knew it,” Njal whispered. “I knew you’d save me…. I knew it….”

His grip slackened. His eyes glazed, and finally died.

Ulrick lowered the boy’s hand down, slowly. Ulrick looked at his face for a moment, and finally placed his hand over the face and closed his eyes.

The dead should not sleep with eyes open, Ulrick recalled someone long ago saying to him.

Anger flared through Ulrick like a Firestorm. It surged through his body, giving his limbs power like white hot lightening. He reached down and grasped up Njal’s sword, as well as drawing his own blade.

Ulrick Rose to his full height, power flowing through his limbs. Slowly he turned to face Jorin.

For the most part Jorin had not moved. He had just stood there, watching the exchange. Now, like a dog after a wash, he shook Njal’s blood from his head. He took in Ulrick, staring him down. Ulrick met Jorin’s gaze with his own, even with Ulrick’s hood, his gaze was too strong for Jorin, who looked away, briefly.

Jorin let loose a bestial howl and dropped to a fighting stance, standing low over the ground, claws held in front of him. Teeth, sharpened to fang, bared at Ulrick.

Ulrick, in turn, spread his legs, back leg bent, and front held slightly. In front of him he held his own blade, slightly out-stretched, while Njal’s blade was held in guard at his side. Slowly, Jorin and Ulrick began to circle each other like wolves, waiting for the other to make a move.

Slowly, a white dot appeared falling between Ulrick and Jorin. It had begun to snow, softly. Jorin and Ulrick watched the flack float slowly to the ground. Finally, quietly, the flack landed in the middle a one patch of blood, making almost a target, a white island in the midst of an ocean of blood.